“How many more raids? How many more bribes?’ With these words, the leader of the Spanish People’s Party, Alberto Núñez Feijo, commented on her, in the context of a judicial investigation into the misuse of party funds.
It was just the latest “episode” in the spate of legal mishaps plaguing the Spanish prime minister, marking the start of a summer that promises to be a nightmare for life for the waning European centre-left.
Family corruption, “black” money
The latest legal adventure for Sanchez was the trial of his brother David, which began yesterday (Thursday 28/05) on charges of undue influence and abuse of public office.
Specifically, he is accused of being favored by the Socialist-dominated municipal council of the city of Badajoz to be appointed coordinator of music schools in 2017, at a time when his brother had been elected party leader but not prime minister.
For his part, David Sanchez denied the charges, citing a political motive in his prosecution.
Sanchez’s wife, Begonia Gomez, also has legal pending cases.
After a two-year investigation, a judge in Madrid last month charged her with abuse of power, collusion, corruption in business dealings and misuse of public funds. Gomez is scheduled to appear before Judge Juan Carlos Peinando for a preliminary hearing on June 9.
The common denominator of both cases is the extremely active ultra-conservative organization Manos Limpias, which filed the complaint in both of the aforementioned cases.
The organization describes itself as a union of civil servants, but international and domestic media have described it as a far-right pressure group, with a long history of legal action against what it sees as a threat to Spain’s interests.
It is worth noting that in Spanish law individuals and public bodies have the possibility to legally sue specific people, even if they are not directly affected.
Party sins
The suffering for the socialist leader does not stop at the close family circle, however, but concerns the core of the functioning of the ruling faction, which he has led continuously since 2017 (he had served another term as head of the party, between 2014-2016).
There is the aforementioned recent event of the aforementioned raid by the Central Service Unit (UCO) of the Gendarmerie, as part of an investigation into the channeling of sums of money from party funds to people in the wider PSOE environment.
The latter were charged with the “duty” of obstructing the complaints filed against members of the Sanchez family in 2024, while Ana Fuentes, head of the financial department of the PSOE, was allegedly instrumental in the fraud, who was charged with fraud by issuing fictitious invoices intended to legitimize the illegal process. Manos Limpias is also behind this complaint.
The “thorn” of Venezuela
. The former prime minister (2004-11) was investigated for alleged lobbying and a number of other offenses in a case involving the bailout of Plus Ultra airline with €53 million in state aid during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Prosecutors, who acted at the request of French and Swiss authorities investigating a money-laundering ring from Venezuela through France, Switzerland and Spain, are looking into whether the company made “improper use” of public funds approved by the government to bail out airlines.
The reason is that the size of the company in question, which had a fleet of only six aircraft serving flights to Latin American countries, allegedly did not justify placing it under disposal status.
Thapatero insists on his innocence and declares his willingness to cooperate with the investigation. He is expected to testify before Spain’s Supreme Court on June 17 and 18.
Elections?
At the moment Sanchez has chosen a double defensive line. On the one hand, it repeatedly reiterates the need for defendants to fully cooperate with the judicial authorities. On the other hand, he strongly defends his family and political allies, claiming that his wife and brother are victims of politically motivated smear campaigns, and continuing to support Thapateros. He does not even hesitate to directly question the independence of a part of the Spanish judiciary.
“There is no doubt that there are judges who are involved in politics and politicians who are trying to deliver justice,” he said in a televised interview last September. As for the possibility of early elections, Sanchez still rules them out, despite the opposition’s constant calls.
Meanwhile, last Saturday tens of thousands of citizens demonstrated in the streets of Madrid, responding to the call of the right-wing People’s Party (PP) and the far-right Vox, demanding the resignation of Sanchez, whom they accuse of corruption, with the leader of Vox repeatedly calling the Spanish prime minister the head of a “corrupt mafia”.
The covert sabotage of his allies
And it is not only the extreme right-wing pole of the political system that calls for recourse to the polls. The 84-year-old socialist former Prime Minister of Spain, Felipe Gondaleth, has called for early parliamentary elections.
The centrist Basque Nationalist Party EAJ-PNV, an ally of the government until now, called through its leader, Aitor Esteban, for elections to be held by the end of 2026. “There are already nine open cases, now Thapatero,” he noted during a public address. “It would be irresponsible to continue beyond 2026 with no direction, no budget, no solid majority and an agenda that is out of control and plagued by court cases.”
In a similar vein, the leader of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) Gabriel Ruffian, that any evidence of widespread political corruption is a “red line” for his party, clarifying that he will act as he did in 2018, when he voted in favor of a motion of no confidence in the center-right government of Manuel Rajoy, when the latter was rocked by a corruption scandal involving an extensive network bribes and illegal financing of the People’s Party, in exchange for the award of government contracts and public works.
